Ulysses by Joyce, James - 1936

John Lane, The Bodley Head London, 1936. Royal 8vo. Limited edition of 1000 copies. First published in Paris in 1922. Eighth edition overall. #747 of 900 copies printed on japon vellum paper and bound in green linen buckram. Homeric bow, designed by Eric Gill, gilt to front cover. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Spine tanned and faded as usual. Light staining and marking to both boards. Bookplate on front pastedown and ink ownership on fly, both of Michael Howard. Endpapers very slightly foxed. Contents clean and fresh. Very good +. A nice copy of this handsome, readable edition of James Joyce's masterpiece. Sir Michael Howard OM CH CBE MC (1922-2019), the distinguished military historian, was born in the year of the novel's first publication. His ink ownership on the flyleaf is dated 'March the fifth, 1943' when he was twenty and a second lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards. In September that year he took part in the landings at Salerno. I rather doubt that this book travelled with him to Italy, but it speaks highly of his culture and broad sympathies that he bought the book in the midst of war and with European civilisation under such threat.